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SEK Education Group, as part of its commitment to social and environmental responsibility, has agreed to use Ecosia as its default internet search engine on all devices used by its students, teachers and administrative staff, both at SEK International Schools located in Almería, Barcelona, Madrid, Pontevedra, Los Alpes and Dublin, as well as at Camilo José Cela University.
By installing this search engine, the SEK educational community will contribute to Ecosia’s goal of continuing to plant millions of trees around the world in the coming years. Over 425,000 native species of trees have been planted in Almería since 2017 including varieties of Aleppo pine, Andalusian juniper, prickly cedar, holm oaks, kermes oaks and hawthorn. The technology company works in such a way that it donates 80% of the income it receives through online advertising, affiliate links and donations to different non-profit organisations around the world related to tree planting.
Ecosia calculates that, for every 45 searches made using its engine, a tree will be planted in the area or place where it is most needed. The educational group has 2,167 laptops, 410 desktop computers, 727 iPads and 807 mobile phones for students, teachers and admin staff. With these figures and once the data related to 2019 have been analysed, it is calculated that the use of this search engine will make it possible to plant around 1 million trees a year around the world, of which around 250,000 will continue to repopulate the province of Almería.
This action in favour of sustainability is part of the curriculum for global citizenship taught at SEK International Schools and Camilo José Cela University, as a transversal and much needed value in achieving goals 13 and 15 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
This initiative joins others previously carried out by SEK Education Group, such distributing each member of its educational community a glass bottle to end the use of plastic cups, building a biomass thermal powered heating network piped to the buildings of the UCJC Villafranca Campus, or the installation of several charging points for electric vehicles on this same campus.
The Ecosia community has already planted “millions of trees in Ethiopia, Brazil, Indonesia, Spain and in many other biodiversity hotspots.” On their website you can access a real-time counter of the trees that have been planted to date, as well as monthly financial reports and tree planting receipts. https://www.ecosia.org/
